Matthew 10:1-4

Sending Out the Twelve Apostles

10:1 Jesus ¹  called his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits ²  so they could cast them out and heal every kind of disease and sickness. ³  10:2 Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: ⁴  first, Simon ⁵  (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother; 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; ⁶  Thomas ⁷  and Matthew the tax collector; ⁸  James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁹  10:4 Simon the Zealot ¹⁰  and Judas Iscariot, ¹¹  who betrayed him. ¹² 

Luke 6:12-16

Choosing the Twelve Apostles

6:12 Now ¹³  it was during this time that Jesus ¹⁴  went out to the mountain ¹⁵  to pray, and he spent all night ¹⁶  in prayer to God. ¹⁷  6:13 When ¹⁸  morning came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: ¹⁹  6:14 Simon ²⁰  (whom he named Peter), and his brother Andrew; and James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, ²¹  6:15 Matthew, Thomas, ²²  James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, ²³  6:16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, ²⁴  who became a traitor.

[10:1]  ¹ tn Grk “And he.”

[10:1]  ² sn Unclean spirits refers to evil spirits.

[10:1]  ³ tn Grk “and every [kind of] sickness.” Here “every” was not repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[10:2]  ⁴ sn The term apostles is rare in the gospels, found only here, Mark 3:14, and six more times in Luke (6:13; 9:10; 11:49; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10).

[10:2]  ⁵ sn In the various lists of the twelve, Simon (that is, Peter) is always mentioned first (see also Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13) and the first four are always the same, though not in the same order after Peter.

[10:3]  ⁶ sn Bartholomew (meaning “son of Tolmai” in Aramaic) could be another name for Nathanael mentioned in John 1:45.

[10:3]  ⁷ sn This is the “doubting Thomas” of John 20:24-29.

[10:3]  ⁸ sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.

[10:3]  ⁹ tc Witnesses differ on the identification of the last disciple mentioned in v. 3: He is called Λεββαῖος (Lebbaio", “Lebbaeus”) in D, Judas Zelotes in it, and not present in sy^s. The Byzantine text, along with a few others (C^[*^],2 L W Θ Ë¹ 33 Ï), conflates earlier readings by calling him “Lebbaeus, who was called Thaddaeus,” while codex 13 pc conflate by way of transposition (“Thaddaeus, who was called Lebbaeus”). But excellent witnesses of the earliest texttypes (א B ˹³ 892 pc lat co) call him merely Θαδδαῖος (Qaddaio", “Thaddaeus”), a reading which, because of this support, is most likely correct.

[10:4]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the Cananean,” but according to both BDAG 507 s.v. Καναναῖος and L&N 11.88, this term has no relation at all to the geographical terms for Cana or Canaan, but is derived from the Aramaic term for “enthusiast, zealot” (see Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), possibly because of an earlier affiliation with the party of the Zealots. He may not have been technically a member of the particular Jewish nationalistic party known as “Zealots” (since according to some scholars this party had not been organized at that time), but simply someone who was zealous for Jewish independence from Rome, in which case the term would refer to his temperament.

[10:4]  ¹¹ sn There is some debate about what the name Iscariot means. It probably alludes to a region in Judea and thus might make Judas the only non-Galilean in the group. Several explanations for the name Iscariot have been proposed, but it is probably transliterated Hebrew with the meaning “man of Kerioth” (there are at least two villages that had that name). For further discussion see D. L. Bock, Luke (BECNT), 1:546; also D. A. Carson, John, 304.

[10:4]  ¹² tn Grk “who even betrayed him.”

[6:12]  ¹³ tn Grk “Now it happened that in.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[6:12]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:12]  ¹⁵ tn Or “to a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὅρος, eis to Joro").

[6:12]  ¹⁶ sn This is the only time all night prayer is mentioned in the NT.

[6:12]  ¹⁷ tn This is an objective genitive, so prayer “to God.”

[6:13]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “And when.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:13]  ¹⁹ sn The term apostles is rare in the gospels, found only in Matt 10:2, possibly in Mark 3:14, and six more times in Luke (here plus 9:10; 11:49; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10).

[6:14]  ²⁰ sn In the various lists of the twelve, Simon (that is, Peter) is always mentioned first (Matt 10:1-4; Mark 3:16-19; Acts 1:13) and the first four are always the same, though not in the same order after Peter.

[6:14]  ²¹ sn Bartholomew (meaning “son of Tolmai” in Aramaic) could be another name for Nathanael mentioned in John 1:45.

[6:15]  ²² sn This is the “doubting Thomas” of John 20:24-29.

[6:15]  ²³ sn The designation Zealot means that Simon was a political nationalist before coming to follow Jesus. He may not have been technically a member of the particular Jewish nationalistic party known as “Zealots” (since according to some scholars this party had not been organized at that time), but simply someone who was zealous for Jewish independence from Rome, in which case the descriptive term applied to Simon means something like “Simon the patriot” (see L&N 25.77 and especially 11.88).

[6:16]  ²⁴ sn There is some debate about what the name Iscariot means. It probably alludes to a region in Judea and thus might make Judas the only non-Galilean in the group. Several explanations for the name Iscariot have been proposed, but it is probably transliterated Hebrew with the meaning “man of Kerioth” (there are at least two villages that had that name). For further discussion see D. L. Bock, Luke (BECNT), 1:546; also D. A. Carson, John, 304.